The diverse
audience clapped and whooped with unbridled joy as “A long time ago in a galaxy
far, far away…”, and the iconic opening crawl appeared along with the 'Star Wars' main title theme by John Williams (he’s back with new themes and rousing cues).

It
is the epitome of inter-generational fandom.
And in the shrewd (or sly) business acquisition of ‘Star Wars’, Disney helped
dispel some of the ‘superhero’ fatigue that they induced with nearly a decade
of Marvel movies, by providing the tonic that we all needed in The Force Awakens.

This
is a reunion of characters we missed dearly, and a wonderful opportunity to
take the saga in a new if familiar direction.
I wouldn’t call myself a die-hard fan, but this is one of those movies which
comes once every few years that you will be tempted to see it twice, maybe
thrice, maybe many more times in theatres.

The
story continues thirty years after the events of Return of the Jedi(1983), and that is all you should know. There are new characters introduced,
including Rey and Finn played by newcomers Daisy Ridley and John Boyega
respectively, who you will grow to like as immensely as you did when you first
saw Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill in A New Hope(1977), all virtually unknowns at that time.

The Force Awakens follows mainly the trajectory
of Rey’s journey as a desert scavenger who is inevitably thrust into the battle
between good and evil, the latter represented by the fearsome Nazi-esque First
Order, led by villain Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy
Serkis).

Fanboy
director J.J. Abrams delivers with aplomb a film that we all want to see. It’s a ‘Star Wars’ movie through and through,
taking most of the elements that made the original trilogy such a joy to watch
(though this ‘recycling’ will probably not go down well with the more critical
fans).

The Force Awakens is not exactly an inspired
piece of blockbuster cinema, and it doesn’t quite innovate in its own self-contained
world, but it proves satisfying throughout. The movie is well-paced, despite being as
lengthy as the terrible The Phantom Menace(1999), and is constantly moving forward with exciting
thrill-a-minute action set-pieces.

Considering
the hype and anticipation, Abrams and Disney can now heave a huge sigh of
relief. The pressure is now on Rian
Johnson’s shoulders – the next episode is scheduled for a summer 2017 release. We can only wait with bated breath.